Gathered As One -- Some 1,000 people joined Bishop O'Connell for Mass on the grounds of the gazebo in Belmar the morning of Aug. 13. Joe Moore photos

With folks sitting on beach chairs, towels and on the ground, with a few perched on bicycles, nearly 1,000 faithful from around the Diocese and beyond gathered for the celebration of Mass at the gazebo on Silver Lake in Belmar with Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., the morning of Aug. 13.

The gala will also honor Investors Bank Foundation and Laurie Pietrini of the Lebensfeld Foundation for their contributions to interfaith and the wider community. Pietrini is a parishioner of St. Gregory the Great Parish, Hamilton Square.

The diocesan Office of Clergy and Consecrated Life will hold information sessions concerning the role of a permanent deacon, the discernment process and the five-year Diaconate Formation Program, Sept. 27 and Oct. 10 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Diocesan Chancery, 701 Lawrenceville Rd., Lawrenceville, for those men discerning God’s call to serve the Church in the Diocese of Trenton as permanent deacons.More ...Thursday, August 10, 2017

In response to the annual Black and Indian Mission Collection held the first Sunday of Lent, which this year was March 5, the faithful in parishes across the Diocese donated $113,660.36 to help communities build the Church and preach the Gospel among African-American, Native-American and Alaska-Native peoples.More ...Thursday, August 10, 2017

As a boy growing up in Ireland, Father Damian McElroy enjoyed watching movies and reading books about missionaries.

“Missionaries and heroes don’t just belong to the movies,” the pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Moorestown, told parishioners after the 5 p.m. Vigil Mass Aug 5.

“They don’t just belong in novels and books. They are real men, and we have one of them here tonight,” he said in describing Father Martin Keveny, a missionary priest in the Amazon who serves in the Diocese of Miracema do Tocantins in Brazil.

Father Keveny, who visited Moorestown that weekend, gave one talk among many as part of the annual Mission Appeal hosted by the diocesan Missions Office.

When a seminarian attended the diocesan Holy Week Tenebrae service in Spring Lake’s St. Catharine Church this past spring, Father Harold Cullen seized the opportunity to ask how parishes might enhance the priestly formation experience.

The immediate response was a request for more opportunities for seminarians to connect with each other throughout the year, recalled Father Cullen, pastor of St. Catharine-St. Margaret Parish. Considering the men study in three different seminaries and spend their summers helping in different parishes around the four counties of the Diocese, chances to get together as a group don’t regularly present themselves, he said.More ...Wednesday, August 9, 2017

As Father Kevin Kimtis explains it, for centuries, the Catholic Church has been sending diplomatic emissaries out into the world on a compelling mission: to strengthen the bonds between the Holy Father and the local Church and carry the concerns of all people to his ear.More ...Wednesday, August 9, 2017

WASHINGTON – Calling a proposed piece of legislation "discriminatory," the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration called on the president and Congress to reject a bill that seeks to drastically cut legal immigration levels in half over a decade and which also would greatly limit the ability of citizens and legal residents to bring family into the U.S.More ...Saturday, August 5, 2017

As Catholic school buildings around the Trenton Diocese prepare to open next month, students, faculty and staff will enter with the assurance that every available water source in them has been tested and found free of lead.

In an inaugural event for the parishes that comprise Cohort 19, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., and faithful from five Monmouth County shoreline parishes will gather for the celebration of Mass at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 13 at the gazebo at Belmar Beach.

The Mass will bring together the parishes of Cohort 19 – St. Catharine-St. Margaret, Spring Lake; St. Rose, Belmar; St. Mark, Sea Girt; Ascension, Bradley Beach, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Avon. Parishioners and guests from all five parishes, as well as from the community at-large, are invited and encouraged to attend.

Marlene Laó-Collins, executive director of Catholic Charities Diocese of Trenton, met with members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation July 26 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Washington’s Capitol Hill.More ...Monday, July 31, 2017

Parish leadership and other members of the diocesan community who regularly deal with Chancery personnel will soon be introduced to newly named directors and a revamped organizational structure in the areas of administration and finance.More ...Thursday, July 27, 2017

The diocesan Department of Evangelization and Family Life will host a Spanish seminar, “Nuestra Historia de Salvacion” Aug. 19 in Holy Family Church, 1139 E. County Line Road, Lakewood.More ...Thursday, July 27, 2017